Mutabaruka
Mutabaruka
Born Allan Hope on December 26, 1952. His name
Mutabaruka comes from the Rwandan language and translates as "one
who is always victorious". He is a Jamaican Rastafarian dub poet. Dub
poetry is Jamaican poetry that is 'musically talked' over reggae music. Mutabaruka is especially well known for the way
he performs his poems. He is also the host of The Cutting Edge on
Jamaica's reggae radio station IREA-FM. You can listen to excerpts from
his radio program at
this
link. You can also
check out his
books
Quotes by Mutabaruka:
| When asked how long he has been vegetarian, he answered: |
| "About 30 years. I was on raw food for about 7 years, and I went back for 3 years, but I think I going to come back again and continue. Raw food is the way to go. Cooking kill the food. Everybody knows that. Live food for live people. Sometimes you find it very difficult to keep up with it. It's somewhat of a mindset, it's a mind thing." |
| "The raw thing is a higher level. It's like you walking a line, but it's not a line really, because it make you so balanced. Things start to feel more to you. It gets you more aware, more quicker. You don't sleep as much. You're not as sluggish." |
| When asked whether his diet is vegan, he answered: |
| "Yes. No animal products. I don't use animal products. I don't use it. I don't wear it. I never given my children animal products. They don't know how cheese is made—egg, honey—none of those things. None of those things, nothing from animals. I grow up my children them that way." |
| "My concept of vegetarian is vegetable. "Vegetarian" come from vegetable. I wouldn't include milk and cheese and egg and these things. That is not vegetable. When I say vegetarian, I don't have to say "vegan." That is terminologies now that make the thing get strange. People say they are lacto-vegetarian and vegan-vegetarian. You can't be a lacto-vegetarian and a vegan-vegetarian. You're either a vegetarian or you're not a vegetarian. A vegetarian is a person who only eats vegetables." |
| "I wouldn't say that I'm not going to eat animal, but then I wear animal product. That is contradictory to me. If a man say him don't eat cow, but him wear leather shoes, that kind of thought is contradictory because it's the same perpetuation of the killing of the animal to make clothes and to eat. Human being is the only creature on earth that kill to create clothes." |
| "Even when the Bible tell you "Thou Shalt Not Kill," it never said "Thou Shalt Not Kill man." It said "Thou Shalt Not Kill" and full stop. ... If God wanted animals to be your food, him wouldn't make them with foot to run away, and with eyes. Food not supposed to have eyes and mouth and nose. That is not food. Food cannot have eyes. That is crazy." |
| "You have a lot of people who are making the transition to vegetarianism who have this concern about where you get your protein from. ... When somebody eating fish, chicken, saying them looking for protein, you already have your protein in basic nuts, beans, grains. Brown rice have protein. Red peas, most of the peas, most of the nuts, is mostly protein. I don't think they should be concerned with it. I think we have been brainwashed in this protein thing. We already have the protein." |
| "A lot of people don't know how their body function. When I first become vegetarian, and really moved into the step of raw food, I learned more about my body. It's like you are the one who is building your temple. You are like the contractor who is constructing your body so you know exactly what is what. If something hurt you, you know why it's hurting." |
| "One thing vegetarian allow you to do is to become more compassionate. What I get to understand within the vegetarian concept is that all life is one. It's just different manifestations of flesh. The cow, the goat, the bird, they all flesh. Is of one source, the life source." |
| "When you stop eating flesh, you kind of recognize a certain compassion inside of you. You feel like, wow, the cow, he don't eat animal, him just there, he don't trouble nobody. So you kind of start to feel like why should I kill the cow? The cow don't trouble nobody. The cow just eat greens everyday." |
Quotes are from his 2010 interview with 1000 Voices of Dissent.
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